In MY FAIR LADY, Eliza sings to her would-be boyfriend, “Don’t speak of Love…Show me”. Readings for this Second (weekend) in Easter are geared to help folks like you and me ask the helpful questions. That is, these passages affirm that it’s really OK to question spiritual matters–our faith is deepened by exploring these things beyond our comprehension and asking for more insight. Our “doubts” become a conversation with God about the Risen Christ and what we’re expected to do about this.
During these weeks after Easter, the reading from the Old Testament will be replaced with one from the book of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, in this case, 2:22-32. Here we find Peter addressing the Pentecost crowds in Jerusalem, many of whom have just heard the Gospel of Christ for the first time in their own language. “But God raised him up, having freed him from death….This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” Those witnesses from Crete and Rome, from Egypt and Arabia and other far-off places took the message of the resurrected Jesus back home with them, to be shared and believed in the Mediterranean world. This reading tends to be a wake-up call to us who have heard the story ten or a thousand times.
PETER (or someone writing in his name) continues this sermon at a later time in I, 1:3-9: “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.” Don’t analyze it, just DO it! The Church’s ministry in this world is but one more opportunity to show the treasures to be shared in the real-time presence of Christ.
The Gospel is that unique story of JOHN 20:19-31, where the friends of Jesus were gathered after the Resurrection and Jesus came to them with the breath of the Holy Spirit. All but Thomas, who’s gotten a bad rap for his”doubting” when all he wanted was to verify what he was told. Is this too good to be true? Or should he believe the wistful yearnings of the others? And do we?? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in our own expressions of “My Lord and my God!”? Far too many are neglecting their appointed ministries while they’re dithering about the perceived marks of Crucifixion.
Kathleen Long Bostrom writes in FEASTING on the WORD (A 2:376) “Whether by understanding or a lightning-bolt moment,, somewhere along the way your spirit awakened to the truth that Jesus is more than the name of someone who lived a couple thousand years ago.” Thomas-like, we weigh the words of our friends–and eventually (soon?) confess that he is truly Lord. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
You’re invited to join in the conversation about readings assigned to the upcoming weekend every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com
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